xProcess nominated for Source ForgeCommunity Choice Awards

Andy Carmichael — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:00:05 -0000

Source Forge today opened nominations for its Community Choice Awards and new process and planning product, xProcess, is already receiving votes. Why not add your nomination for xProcess now in any or all of these categories:

. Best New Project 
. Best Project 
. Best Project for the Enterprise 
. Best Tool or Utility for Developers 
. Best Commercial Open Source Project 
. Most Likely to Change the Way You Do Everything

Voting only takes a click!

https://sourceforge.net/community/cca09/nominate/?project_name=xProcess&project_url=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Fxprocess%2F

xProcess: Agile Planning Product Released under Open Source

Andy Carmichael — Fri, 01 May 2009 21:52:00 -0000

xProcess, for project management and process improvement, focuses particularly on agile and priority-driven approaches. The preconfigured processes, eg. Scrum, FDD, Prince2, Unified, can be tailored. Gantt/Burndowns/target status are continually updated.

One of the most innovative project management and process improvement solutions to emerge in recent years, xProcess, has today been officially released under open source license. xProcess allows users to define project management processes (for example task patterns, artifacts, gateways and workflows) and then run live projects while monitoring targets, deliveries and process compliance. Agile methods for software development such as Scrum, FDD and variants of Unified Process are particularly well supported by the technology, which provides priority-driven ordering of activities and resource balancing. The free download of the product includes pre-configured processes for Scrum and other methods.

Ivis Technologies, the Colorado-based company that developed xProcess, and xProcess Europe Ltd, their European marketing arm, also announced today the formation of a new company, OpenXprocess Ltd. OpenXprocess now owns the technology and will support, train and consult with project teams using the product.

OpenXprocess simultaneously announced the full release of version 3 which incorporates many usability enhancements over previous versions, as well as implementing a fully scalable and distributable data architecture based on the popular Subversion configuration management repository. Client access to xProcess is either through a web interface (for project participants) or the Eclipse based desktop application (RCP), which as well as supporting project participants, provides full facilities for project managers and for process engineers defining new or tailored processes.

Ivis CEO Christopher Lank said, “We believe today’s announcement is great news for project teams in the current market. xProcess is one of the most advanced agile planning tools available and its process definition facilities – including its graphical process modeling and built-in workflow – are second to none. We estimate there are currently over 10,000 users of xProcess worldwide, but making this product available to the open source community will mean many more teams can benefit from the technology at minimal cost, while OpenXprocess’s services arm can grow with the user base and continue to offer excellence in training, mentoring and support.”

Andy Carmichael, OpenXprocess’s CEO commented, “Agile methods for managing projects are crucial for business success in the current climate. We’re delighted that this move to open source will make configurable agile processes available to a much wider community – a community that this company is well placed to serve. Our training products, support packages and consultancy services help teams get the most from agile methods and from xProcess. Succeeding with agile has just got simpler with this release, and the OpenXprocess team is here to ensure teams get the best possible support along the way.”

The xProcess product has been widely praised for its simplicity and its innovation, with both SD Times and the Eclipse Foundation giving it prestigious awards in recent years. Project managers simply choose (or configure) their process, then enter tasks, targets, priorities and resource profiles. The resulting schedules (displayed in Gantt, burndown or other charts) are dynamically updated as team members execute the plans and complete or re-estimate tasks. Clients in Europe, Asia and the USA are using xProcess to improve the agility and speed of execution as well as the auditability and compliance of their processes.

xProcess can be downloaded and evaluated from www.openxprocess.com or via SourceForge at http://sourceforge.net/projects/xprocess/.

Keywords:
xProcess, open source, Eclipse, project management, planning, process improvement, process modeling, Scrum, FDD, agile, OpenXprocess, Subversion

http://www.openxprocess.com/

xProcess: Scrum and FDD configurations

Andy Carmichael — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:11:14 -0000

Updates are now available for both the Scrum and FDD processes in xProcess, the open source process and project management environment.

Customised processes for development (or other) projects can be defined in xProcess and live projects subsequently planned and monitored. However it is useful to start from one of the predefined processes now available rather than building customised processes from scratch. The two most popular xProcess configurations, Scrum and FDD, are continually enhanced as preferred ways of working are discovered by users. You can access the processes by downloading xProcess and importing the configuration you require. Alternatively, those wishing to contribute to the base definition can join the open source project concerned with these methods. Contact support@openxprocess.com for further details.

xProcess Web Server now available

Andy Carmichael — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 11:45:02 -0000

With the release on SourceForge of xProcess 3.0.3 (beta) this week, Ivis has also made the xProcess Web Server available. Installing this software on a suitable server enables participants on projects to access their tasks, estimates and hours directly through a browser. This simplifies the job of updating task status day by day and ensures that project gantt and burndown charts display the most update status and forecasts.

First Beta Release of xProcess v3 on SourceForge

Andy Carmichael — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:57:48 -0000

The initial beta release of xProcess v3 was made available by Ivis Technologies today, show-casing the new architecture and many new features of the process and project management environment. The xProcess project moved to the open source hosting site SourceForge earlier this month and downloads of the released version (2.9) have been growing steadily ever since. Releasing the binaries for xProcess v3 is the next stage towards the full open source release expected within the next few weeks. Andy Carmichael, Managing Director of XprocessEurope Ltd, commented "We're delighted Ivis has released this early view of the xProcess v3 product, giving our users and evaluators a chance to see the latest capabilities of the product."

FDD-xProcess goes open

Andy Carmichael — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 15:25:36 -0000

As preparations are now well under way for the open source release of xProcess itself, several standard configurations of the product are also being released. Today sees the release of the Feature Driven Development configuration. Members joining the project can download this configuration and contribute to its on-going development in xProcess.

The release itself consists of an xProcess Data Source. This means contributors can download a copy of data and use or modify it locally on their own machines , or subscribe to the live project on SVN and obtain updates automatically as they are made by other FDD-xProcess users.